Rudiculous

iTrader: (15)

I just got my car back from K&N in Riverside and here is a quick scoop:

There is about a 9 hp increase in power and about 9 ft-lb increase in torque at about 5,250 RPM. They will be using the factory box so it will be CARB legal this time around unlike the 3GS kit.

jadu

iTrader: (42)

Definite upgrade. Is K&N going to provide you with another intake with the C.A.R.B. sticker on it?

Dukeaudio

Right on...Wonder if it generates more than the F Sport and Joe Z intakes...

Rudiculous

iTrader: (15)

Once they make the sticker they are mailing it to me.

They still hadn't even made the box for the kit yet

terrycs

That's a pretty good gain from just an intake alone. Are those dyno runs from your car? If so, do you know how they ran the test(s)? i.e. same day, averaging multiple pulls?

Sorry to ask ... I've just seen many instances where manufacturers post up the pull with the greatest disparity leaving a lot of customers unhappy and questioning the reported gains.

jtrue28

How does it sound?

Schmexus

Yeah, a 9hp increase(at the wheels??) is incredibly hard to believe from just a simple intake.
Even if it flowed so much more air that it was capable of producing that much more power, wouldn't that mean the fuel mixture is now lean? How do they add more fuel to compensate?

I also have a hard time believing that Lexus designed the intake so poorly that they left 9hp on the table to be picked up by a simple tube and filter swap. Sounds fishy...

FishBike

I'd think that's well within the range the mass airflow sensor can read accurately, so the computer would just inject the appropriate amount of fuel to match the airflow it's reading. No different than running the car on a really cold day when the air is denser.

Rudiculous

iTrader: (15)

The dyno run is from my GS. I do not know how many they ran but I do know they kept my car for about a week and put quite a few miles on it. My guess would be a few given that to install an intake wouldn't take very long leaving a few days to do some runs.


It sounds okay, nothing crazy noticeable because they are using the factory box muffling some of the sound unlike the 3GS intake kit. I did notice that some of the "rumble" is gone and you get a tad more of an intake sound. But again, nothing crazy wow


I don't know if that's hard to believe given that 9 whp would only be about 10-15 hp to the motor.

Schmexus

And a 10-15 crank hp increase sounds believable from a filter swap and a shiny tube?

This is definitely a worst case/best case dyno comparison. How much power could possibly be gained by not even having a filter?

If this were done by an independent company doing back to back runs I'd believe it. The fact that it was done by K&N and they put several miles on your car tells me to be skeptical.

Looking at the runfile_042 to runfile_053 makes me think there were at least 12 runs to come up with this comparison.

terrycs

I don't mean to imply that it is impossible for the gains. I think it will depend greatly on the selling price. If it were relatively inexpensive, I would try it. On the other hand if it were expensive, I'd wait for more independent data.

jtrue28

I'm not buying this (both figuratively and literally).

All they did was change the tube, and maybe drop in the filter that they already have on their website. Someone on here has already modified the 3GS CAI to fit the 4GS. If I do this, I want the growl from the 3GS CAI. "Increased" horsepower is marginal at best.

ItzFilyO

If you don't change the whole air box kit than it's pretty much worthless, well except for looks, not even for sound.

Even if you swap out the whole air box with the whole kit like the 3GS you won't feel any gain, all you get is only the good sound. I did that on my old Camry's 2GR and it says 12HP gain on K&N's dyno sheet, but I don't feel any difference. In fact, it felt slower cause of all the hot air it's sucking in from the engine. The stock setup is basically a cold air intake kit, it draws cold air straight from the grille.

Polo708

its less than a 3% hp gain... is it really that hard to believe LOL. In advanced engines like ours its all about efficiency, more air in and more air out.

Were not talking about 9hp on a 130hp civic

Schmexus

Me thinks your math is a bit off


I washed my car the other day and shaved a tenth off my 1/4 mile. It's all about parasitic drag. She was pretty dirty.

Do you think that tenth was really from washing my car or could it be other factors?

You can dyno the same car 5 different times and get 5 slightly different results. I'll bet good money that at least one of the runs with the filter was lower than at least one of the base runs with the stock filter.

It's actually comical to me that there is a need for a dyno pull after an air filter upgrade, but k&n has made a fortune selling this idea to people.